Graduate School

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Employee Satisfaction vs. Service Performance

-A Chinese hotel’s perspective

Susanna Sun and Yun Shi

Graduate School

Master of Science in Tourism and Hospitality Management

Master Degree Project No. 2009:64

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ABSTRACT

Among business practitioners, it is a conventional wisdom that employees’ satisfaction determines their service performance. However, in the academic world, there is a continuous debate on whether service employees’ attitudes can be directly associated with their job performance.

Culture might influence people on their behavior. With the interest of examining the relationship between job satisfaction and performance, the limited studies on employees in China has further concentrated the research on Chinese hotel employees with objectives of capturing the culture trend and identifying the constructs of contemporary Chinese hospitality employees' job satisfaction.

An international hotel chain in China – Days Inn China was chosen as a company to be focused upon with a sample group – employees of three selected Days’ hotels for questionnaire survey.

Findings indicated that some dimensions of culture changed over time. Job content, sense of security, feeling of achievement seemed to be the most important indicators for Chinese employees’ overall job satisfaction. Although there was no strong correlation found between employee's job satisfaction and service performance in this study, the relationship between job satisfaction and organizational commitment was observed.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Taking this opportunity, we would like to thank our families and friends for their great support in helping us complete this research.

With sincere gratitude to our thesis supervisor Dr. Eva Gustavsson for her valuable time and opinions which contributed much to our work.

Special thanks to Messrs Harry and David Tan – the CEO and the COO of Days Inn China, Mr. Robert Xu - the General Manager of Days Inn Forbidden City Beijing as well as the HR heads of Days Inn China, Days Inn Business Place Yinfeng Beijing and Days Hotel Tongji Shanghai, for the enormous help they provided.

There is too much to say in too few words but without each and every one of you, this could never have been accomplished. We truly appreciate you all!

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LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 1: Demographic Statistics of Respondents ...30

Table 2: Crosstab of Age and Question 29 ...34

Table 3: Contingency Table for Reason to Leave and Respondents' Gender...36

Table 4: Correlation between Job Satisfaction Constructs and Overall Job Satisfaction ...39

Table 5: Results of Question 28...41

Table 6: Correlation between Overall Job Satisfaction and Job Performance...44

Table 7: Correlation between Overall Job Satisfaction and Question 18/19 ...45

Table 8: Correlation between Will of Leaving the Company and Job Factors...46

Figure 1: Service Profit Chain ...17

Figure 2: High Performance Cycle ...18

Figure 3: Research Model...21

Figure 4: Results of Question 22 “I work hard because…”...32

Figure 5: Results of Question 29 “I would very much prefer my job to be…”...33

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1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale and Background of the Research

Over the past two decades, the soaring economy in China has attracted a great number of hotel giants to have entered the Chinese market in succession. Although these international hotel chains possess a competitive advantage of being recognized by travelers for their well-established brand names, ensuring the consistent delivery of their service promises is crucial to their success.

Services are characterized by intangibility, heterogeneity, inseparability and perishability (Zeithaml, Bitner and Gremler, 2006). Owing to this unique nature, hospitality employees’ performance upon service delivery is an important determinant for customer satisfaction and loyalty, as the quality of service encounters between employee and customer determines the level of customer satisfaction (Hurley and Estelami, 2007).

Furthermore, studies have shown that customer satisfaction is correlated with employees’ satisfaction, as satisfied employees are likely to perform better on the job (Silva, 2006). In other words, employee satisfaction could lead to customer satisfaction; consequently it increases customer loyalty and benefits the organization with improved profitability (Hurley and Estelami, 2007). Although such statements aroused debate from many researchers, the results are left indefinite.

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1.2 Research Question

Hospitality industry is a labor-intensive industry. Employees’ service performances are crucial to a company’s success. The lack of adequate study on hospitality employees in the Chinese hotel sector in particular, has launched and motivated the conducting of this research. In order to understand the importance of the relationship between employees’ satisfaction towards their occupation and their service performance, the research question is addressed accordingly:

What is the influence of culture to Chinese hospitality employees’ job satisfaction and its relationship to service performance?

After having identified the research problem, three hypotheses (H.1, H.2 and H.3) were generated from the literature review conducted in Chapter Two:

H.1 The characteristics of Chinese hospitality employees' work motives comply with the Chinese national culture identity. The Chinese national culture identity here refers to “the need for close-supervision” and “the importance of wealth, recognition and achievement”.

H.2 The indicators of Chinese hospitality employees' job satisfaction consist of pay, promotion opportunities, coworkers, supervision, and the work itself.

H.3 Chinese hospitality employees’ job satisfaction is positively related to their performance.

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outcome is expected to be contributive to international service organizations in human resource management as well as in service improvement.

In order to achieve the aim of the study, three objectives have been set as the following:

Objective One: To capture the culture trend over time in Chinese hotel service sector

Objective Two: To identify the significant constructs of Chinese hospitality employees' job satisfaction

Objective Three: To examine the linkage between job satisfaction and employee performance

Objective One aims at understanding the contemporary Chinese hospitality employees’ needs and building the foundation for this research. In order to meet the objective set, previous studies on employee’s job satisfaction and motivating factors will be reviewed in studying the key drivers affecting employees’ satisfaction and behavior. Theories in relation to culture and characteristics depicting Chinese national culture identity will be discussed and utilized for generating and testing the first hypothesis. By proposing relevant questions and surveying employees from the selected hospitality company in China, the results revealed will fulfill Objective One.

Objective Two set out above aims at studying contemporary Chinese hospitality employees’ job satisfaction constructs. By reviewing previous studies, an instrument in measuring employee job satisfaction will be selected and tested on Chinese hotel employees in finding out the indicators of their job satisfaction. Results derived from the survey will therefore meet Objective Two.

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job satisfaction and employee performance. By achieving Objective Three, the research question proposed will consequently be answered.

1.3 Outline of the Thesis

The study is comprised of five chapters and appendices. Chapter Two provides theoretical introduction contributing to the understanding of work motivation, national culture, employee job satisfaction as well as job performance. It presents hypotheses generated from the literature reviewed in testing the theory and searching for the answer to the research question. A research model is drawn to highlight the concepts used in the study and the formulation of the hypotheses.

Chapter Three provides a description to the methodology employed in this research, starting with the research method and continuing by explaining the data collection and analysis procedure. At the end of the chapter, limitations and ethical considerations to the research are illustrated.

Chapter Four presents the findings obtained from the empirical research. An introduction to the background of the selected hotels is given, followed by presenting analysis with focus on the three hypotheses set out for the study.

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2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Work Motivation

Work motivation deals with the understanding of what inspire and sustain employee’s drives to work. Work motivation was defined by Katzell and Thompson (1990, p. 144) as “a broad construct pertaining to the conditions and processes that account for the arousal, direction, magnitude, and maintenance of effort in a person’s job”. Daft (2000) argued that motivation refers to the forces either within or external to a person that arouse enthusiasm and persistence to pursue a certain course of action. Clark (2003) described that work motivation can initiate and maintain goal-directed performance; it generates the mental effort that drives people to convert intention into action and start or continue doing something.

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2.1.1 Content Theories

Many researchers studied on whether money is the complete answer to the question “why people work”. One of the critics of this idea was Elton Mayo’s Hawthorne Studies, which investigated the social relationship in work (Foster, 2000). Mayo’s study showed the importance of groups in affecting the behavior of individuals at work. And Mayo (1933) stated that work satisfaction depended to a large extent on the informal social pattern of the work group, where norms of cooperation and higher output were established because of a feeling of importance. Mayo set the tone of theorizing about work motivation for a generation, and built the foundation for the view that the financial motive is not the sole or even the most important one (Foster, 2000).

Maslow's hierarchy of needs is often depicted as a pyramid consisting of five levels, from the lowest needs: physiological needs, to safety and security, affection and social activity, esteem and status, and finally self-actualization. Maslow (1954) introduced the view of relationship between motivation and satisfaction by indicating that the higher needs in this hierarchy only come into focus when the lower needs in the pyramid are met. The popularity of this theory among managers could prompt them to consider subordinate’s needs (Rollinson, Breadfield and Edwards, 1998). However, it is often criticized because it is not testable in the usual sense of scientific theories. For example, Vroom (1964, p.38) commented that Maslow’s needs theory was based on a flimsy empirical foundation; Muchinsky (1993, p.329) stated that it is far more philosophical than empirical.

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working/managing style. This theory has been used to study whether people in different types of occupations have particular need patterns.

2.1.2 Process Theories

Herzberg (1959) developed the Two Factor Theory (also known as Herzberg's Motivation-Hygiene Theory), which suggests that job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction acted independently of each other. There are certain factors in the workplace that cause job satisfaction, namely motivator factors, while a separate set of factors cause dissatisfaction, namely hygiene factors. Motivator factors include achievement, recognition, work itself, responsibility, promotion and growth; whereas hygiene factors include pay and benefits, company policy and administration, relationships with co-workers, physical environment, supervision, status, job security, and salary.

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Adams (1963) asserted that employees seek to maintain equity between the inputs that they bring to a job and the outcomes that they receive from it against the perceived inputs and outcomes of others. Feelings of inequity are assumed to be motivating, and individuals will try to reduce such feelings by bringing the two rations into balance, that is to seek justice (Adams, 1963).

Moreover, Expectancy (VIE) Theory raised by Vroom (1964), introduced three variables: valence (V), expectancy (E) and instrumentality (I) in the theory. It is stated that people are motivated to behave so that they obtain the outcomes which they believe that will provide the results they desire (Vroom, 1964). Expectancy theory provided a rich rational basis for understanding motivation in a given job (Munchinsky, 1993).

Furthermore, Locke developed the Goal Setting Theory in 1968. The theory's basic assumption is that goals and intentions are cognitive and willful, and they serve as mediators of human actions. The two most important findings of this theory are that setting specific goals generates higher levels of performance than setting general goals, and goals which are hard to achieve lead to higher performance than do easily achieved ones. However, such influences on performance are mediated by two conditions: feedback, and the extent to which the person accepts the goal (Locke, 1968).

2.2 Culture

Culture has a great impact on behavior, moral, values and productivity. It also influences people and organization attitudes and actions (Harris and Moran, 2001). Culture has been defined by many researchers. Schein (1990) defined it as:

a) a pattern of basic assumptions,

b) invented, discovered, or developed by a given group,

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e) is to be taught to new members as the

f) correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems

(Schein, 1990, p.111)

Schein (1990) distinguished three fundamental levels of culture: observable artifacts, values and basic underlying assumptions. He also underlined that the content and strength of a culture could not be presumed from observing surface cultural phenomena, thus a combination of ethnographic and clinical research could be the most appropriate basis for trying to understand the concept of culture. However, other researchers defined culture in a different way. For example, Olie (1995) concluded culture with four characteristics:

1) Culture is not a characteristic of individuals, but of a collection of individuals who share common values, beliefs, ideas etc.

2) Culture is learned. People learn the culture of a group when they become a member. The culture of the group is transmitted from generation to generation. 3) A related aspect of culture is its historical dimension.

4) Culture has different layers. Hofstede (1991) distinguishes four different layers, ranging from the more visible and superficial manifestation to deeper and intangible element: Symbols, Heroes, Rituals and Values

(Olie, 1995, p.127)

Hofstede (1994) described culture as the “collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from those of another” (p. 4). It refers more tangibly to relatively enduring personality characteristics which are common or standardized in a given society (Furrer, Liu and Sudharshan, 2000).

2.2.1 National Culture Theory

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without taking national culture into account. As time goes by, as businesses become more global, more and more researchers advocated that culture has a great influence on managerial behavior and choice (Oliver and Cravens, 1999).

Hofstede (1980) revealed national culture difference based on multinational samples of IBM employees in 64 countries. His study identified and validated four dimensions of national culture differences, namely individualism versus collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and masculinity versus femininity. Later, Hofstede and Bond (1988) added a fifth dimension to these: long-term versus short-term orientation. These cross-cultural studies add inputs to the fact that the behaviors and value systems of different peoples are dictated by unique cultural roots (Lam, 2002).

The power distance dimension targets on inequality. It is often reflected in the hierarchical organization of companies (Hofstede, 1980). Employees from high power distance cultures are believed to accept hierarchy and power differences and comply quickly and automatically with the decisions of the powerful (Hofstede, 1980). While employees from low power distance cultures favor decentralized power structure, flat organization, and equal privileges (Hughes, 1999).

The uncertainty avoidance dimension deals with comfort with uncertainty, or need for rules. Employees from high uncertainty avoidance cultures feel uncomfortable with uncertainty, while they like to have rules, orders, and truths. Conversely, employees from low uncertainty avoidance cultures value as few rules as possible, relativism, and common sense. (Hughes, 1999)

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Furthermore, the masculinity dimension is concerned about the distribution of roles between the genders. Employees from high masculinity culture value money, growth, achievements and independence. Contrarily, employees from low masculinity culture value people, quality of life and interdependence (Hughes, 1999).

Finally, the long-term orientation dimension describes the importance attached to the future versus the past and present. Values associated with long-term orientation are thrift and perseverance. Employees from long-term oriented culture expect long-term reward as a result of today’s hard work. However, in short-term oriented culture, values include normative statements, personal steadiness and stability, protecting one’s face, respect for tradition, and reciprocation of greetings, favors, and gifts. Both the positively and the negatively rated values of this dimension are found in the teachings of Confucius (Hofstede, 2001).

2.2.2 Chinese national culture identity and the related impacts on work motivation

Chinese are labeled as high in power distance, collectivism, weak in uncertainty avoidance, medium to high masculinity and more long-term oriented (Hofstede, 2001). According to this national culture identity, Chinese employees have the need for close-supervision; they are more likely motivated by the opportunity to learn new skills and to contribute to the needs of the group; and in addition, by wealth, recognition, opportunities for advancement and achievement (Hughes, 1999).

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significant characteristics specified in national culture identity for Chinese in terms of “the need for close-supervision” and “the importance of wealth, recognition and achievement”.

In this study, Chinese hospitality employees’ work motives were regarded as important factors influencing their behavior and consequently, job performance. To carry out the research and to further exam the issue, the first hypothesis (H.1) is formulated as follows:

H.1 The characteristics of Chinese hospitality employees' work motives comply with the Chinese national culture identity. The Chinese national culture identity here refers to “the need for close-supervision” and “the importance of wealth, recognition and achievement”.

The assumption made above set a foundation for the research in better understanding Chinese hospitality employees’ needs and current trend towards job in China, based on the relevant theory discussed.

2.3 Employee Job Satisfaction

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demands of one’s work (as cited in Jönsson, 2005). Putting it in simple words, job satisfaction can be understood as the extent to which employees like their jobs (Heneman, Schwab, Fossum and Dyer, 1989).

2.3.1 Studies on employee job satisfaction

Previous research on job satisfaction variables can be organized into four groups, according to the different focus of the studies and increasingly complicated methodologies due to the increased number of possible interrelationships between variables (Topolosky, 2000).

The first group includes some earlier work identifying the elements of job satisfaction and the effect of personal factors such as age, gender, and experience of employees, e.g. Mottaz’s (1987) research showed that worker satisfaction varies directly with age and that older workers tend to be more satisfied with their jobs than younger workers (as cited in Topolosky, 2000). The second group focuses on the impact of social dynamics on employee satisfaction and individual performance, such as communication, participation, recognition, development, leadership, and commitment. For example, Ludeman (1989) asserted that it is a basic psychological truth that people who receive attention, recognition, and praise from others become more cooperative and hard working (as cited in Topolosky, 2000).

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of training programs and firm financial performance as well as productivity growth (as cited in Topolosky, 2000).

2.3.2 Indicators of employee job satisfaction

Herzberg, Mausner, Peterson and Capwell (1957) stated that the term job satisfaction is multidimensional: “there can be satisfaction with the specific activities of the job; with the place and working conditions under which the job is performed; or with specific factors such as economic rewards, security, or social prestige” (p.1). Issues such as: How to measure job satisfaction, what does job satisfaction consist of, aroused much interest of different researchers.

Smith, Kendall and Hulin (1969) created the Job Descriptive Index (JDI) to measure employee job satisfaction. It is a specific questionnaire which measures one’s satisfaction in five facets: pay, promotions and promotion opportunities, coworkers, supervision, and the work itself. JDI is highly regarded and well documented as valid and reliable. According to Kerr (1985), the JDI “possesses good content validity (including concurrent, predictive, convergent, and discriminate validities), impressive construct validity, and adequate reliability,” and “very few instruments in industrial-organizational psychology have received the attention of researchers that the JDI has” (p. 755).

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Job satisfaction links closely to work motivation. It may be viewed, at one level, as an outcome of being able to succeed in acting in accordance with one’s motivation (Jönsson, 2005). In this sense, satisfaction arises not from performance of the job per se, but from the ability to have a need or motive satisfied. It is assumed that high levels of motivation will have both psychological and behavioral consequences: the psychological consequences include job satisfaction and organizational commitment; whereas the behavioral effects include higher output, lower absenteeism and lower likelihood of leaving the job (Foster, 2000).

The close relationship between work motivation and job satisfaction implied that studying the indicators of job satisfaction will lead to the understanding of employees’ needs and the factors influencing their behavior. By adopting Job Descriptive Index (JDI) which has been widely accepted and used for a long time, with the five major indicators which were the significant components in almost every employee job satisfaction survey, “pay”, “promotions and promotion opportunities”, “coworkers”, “supervision”, and “the work itself” have been chosen as benchmarks for this research in testing the Chinese working environment. To further continue the research and to gain a clear insight of the constituents of Chinese hospitality employees’ job satisfaction, the second hypothesis (H.2) was formulated accordingly:

H.2 The indicators of Chinese hospitality employees' job satisfaction consist of pay, promotion opportunities, coworkers, supervision, and the work itself.

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2.4 Service Employee Job Satisfaction and Job Performance

Job performance is most commonly referred to whether a person performs their job well. Despite the confusion over how it should be exactly defined, performance is an extremely important criterion that relates to organizational outcomes and success. Some people argue that performance can be thought of as actual results vs. desired results. Campbell (1990) defined performance as individual behavior, which differentiates from outcome, because there are more factors that determine outcomes than just an employee’s behaviors and actions. Campbell (1990) also pointed out that job performance must be directed toward organizational goals that are relevant to the job or role, and it is conceptualized as a multidimensional construct consisting of more than one kind of behavior.

In the service industry, employee job performance is extremely critical to the success of an organization. Because of the unique characteristics of service compared to goods, such as intangibility, heterogeneity, simultaneous production and consumption, “employees are service and the brand” (Zeithaml et al., 2006, p. 349).

2.4.1 Positive linkage

In the service sector, one of the “conventional wisdom” is that high employee satisfaction results in good service. Many researchers studied on the linkage between employee satisfaction and its possible service outcome e.g. customer satisfaction and service performance.

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Source: Heskett et al. (1994) p.166 Figure 1: Service Profit Chain

Further, Bowen, Gilliland and Folger (1999) stated that service employee attitudes have a significant influence upon customer attitudes, which could be termed as the “spillover effect”. Employees who feel positive about their workplace radiate positive affect in the course of conducting their work; these emotions are perceived and absorbed by customers, who, as a result, experience satisfying service encounters (Gelade and Young, 2005). As the quality of service encounters between employee and customer determines the level of customer satisfaction, employees’ performance on service delivery is an important determinant for customer loyalty (Hurley and Estelami, 2007).

2.4.2 Arguments on the positive linkage

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associated with job satisfaction is staying/quitting the job, and the attitude that is most strongly associated with job satisfaction is organizational commitment. They developed the model of ‘high performance cycle’ (see Figure 2), which acknowledged that the effect of satisfaction on performance is indirect. Only if satisfaction leads to commitment and its goals and only if those goals are challenging and accompanied by high self-efficacy will result in high performance.

Source: Adopted from Foster. (2000) p.322 Figure 2: High Performance Cycle

Moreover, the possible positive relationship between employee satisfaction and service performance was questioned to have little support in empirical research as well (Sturman and Way, 2008). Judge, Thoresen, Bono and Patton (2001) performed an extensive meta-analysis of the job satisfaction - job performance relationship and found that in 314 studies with a combined sample size of 54,471 subjects, the correlation

High performance Mediating mechanisms: *Effort *Persistence *Direction *Task strategies Specific high goals

High expectancy, self-efficacy Moderating factors: *Goal commitment *Feedback *Ability *Task complexity

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between job satisfaction and job performance (after correcting for unreliability) to be 0.30; the average raw correlation was only 0.18.

Fisher (2003, p. 773) argued that “Individuals may believe that satisfied employees are good performers because of their own highly accessible experiences of being more satisfied at moments that they are performing work tasks more effectively, and less satisfied when they are performing less well.” In addition, Bowling’s (2007) study found that the satisfaction-performance relationship is largely spurious, because the relationship was partially eliminated after controlling for either general personality traits (e.g. Five Factor Model traits and core self-evaluations) or for work locus of control and was almost completely eliminated after controlling for organization- based self-esteem.

Furthermore, Sturman and Way (2008) studied on 40 Asian hotels and their findings underscore the weak connection between workers’ satisfaction and employee service performance, while they advocate that workplace climate shows a much stronger effect on performance.

Having stated above, a great number of studies were carried out by researchers in investigating the linkage between employee satisfaction and job performance, while the results were left indefinite. Noticing the limited empirical study in the hospitality sector particularly in the Chinese hotel industry, the research had a focus on Chinese hospitality employees. In searching for the answer to the research question proposed in Chapter One, the third hypothesis (H.3) is formulated as the following:

H.3 Chinese hospitality employees’ job satisfaction is positively related to their performance.

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2.2.2, Section 2.3.2 and Section 2.4.2), a research model demonstrating the theoretical approach for this study has been developed and is presented in the following section.

2.5 Research Model

The model below (see Figure 3) illustrates the hypothetic relationship of work motives, employee job satisfaction, and performance/commitment within a given cultural environment. Based on the understanding of the aforementioned theories and previous researches, the relationship of these four factors could be translated as: the fulfillment of employees’ work motives would lead to employee job satisfaction, and job satisfaction would possibly affect job performance and/or organizational commitment in a positive way. While these processes only came into existence under certain circumstances, a disparate cultural environment could have impacts on these presumed consequences. Thereby, three hypotheses were developed accordingly.

Hypothesis One (H.1) was built upon the assumption that employees from different cultural environment might be motivated by different job factors. It was derived in the light of Hofstede’s previous research, aiming at investigating whether today’s Chinese hospitality employees’ working motives remained the same as before.

Further, taken into consideration of the possible constituents of employee job satisfaction, Hypothesis Two (H.2) was formulated upon selection of a widely used job satisfaction measurement with the aim of identifying the significant constructs or characteristics of Chinese hospitality employees' job satisfaction.

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.

Figure 3: Research Model

It is worth repeating that China is a country that is different from those in the western world. Its unique historical background and deep cultural roots could influence people immensely which would challenge the existence of the hypothetic relationships illustrated above. After all, the vast majority of previous studies on work motives, job satisfaction and performance are done in western cultures.

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3 METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research Method

With the aim of analyzing contemporary Chinese hospitality employees’ job satisfaction and examining the linkage between employee satisfaction and performance, this study was carried out in China with an international hotel chain having been focused upon. The research has been undertaken in three steps: forming of hypotheses, interviewing and questionnaire survey.

In the previous chapter, hypotheses were developed based on the literature reviewed. According to Bryman and Bell (2007), hypotheses are defined as statements about relationship that were derived from theory, which extended beyond the existing knowledge and could be tested by experiment, observation or some other form of investigation. For the purpose of theory testing, a preliminary research was initially carried out.

As stated by Bell (2005), preliminary interviews can be placed at the stage when researchers are interested in searching for areas or topics that are important to them. Moreover, people concerned with it are urged to express their feelings and ideas on its central significance. In the course of this study, six semi-structured interviews were conducted in Beijing with six native Chinese respondents working in different industries, in finding out current trend towards job and job satisfaction in the Chinese society. An interview guide (see Appendix 1) was used to help reduce interviewers’ effects and minimize the risk of having leading questions (Patton, 1990). Information obtained from these interviews was further used for formulating questions for the survey.

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questions was developed (see Appendix 2). For the purposes of hypothesis testing, a sample group was selected in carrying out the questionnaire survey. Respondents chosen were local employees from three selected hotels in two major cities of China, all within one international hotel chain – Days Inn China.

3.2 Data Collection Procedure 3.2.1 The site - Days Inn China

This study was done by targeting on hospitality employees from one selected international hotel chain in China – Days Inn China. Days Inn is the most famous and the biggest brand which the world largest hotel group -Wyndham Hotel Group owns. It is ranked the fifth largest brand after Hilton on Hotels’ Corporate 300 Ranking and it is the largest mid-range hotel brand in the world. Nevertheless, the cultural background and economic situation in China have not only benefited the lodging sector in flourishing but also in being luxurious. At present, Days Inn is one of the fastest growing international hotel brands in China with 52 hotels ranging from three-star to five-star across the country. (Days Inn China, n.d.)

Considering the convenience of geographical locations, hotels chosen for employee survey were the ones situated in Beijing and Shanghai. Three Days’ brands hotels having been selected for questionnaire distribution were Days Hotel Tongji Shanghai (four-star), Days Inn Forbidden City Beijing (three-star) and Days Inn Business Place Yinfeng Beijing (three-star), which well represent both upscale and mid-scale hotels being operated by the chain throughout the country.

3.2.2 Questionnaire survey

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Chinese workers were working environment, career development opportunities and salary (fringe benefits); and in combination with the proven JDI measurement on employee job satisfaction (see Chapter 2), the first part of the questionnaire included questions (Question 1-19) in relation to their satisfaction in terms of “pay”, “promotion, promotion opportunities”, “coworkers”, “supervision” and “the work itself” with scales ranking from One to Five (1 being of “strongly disagree” and 5 being “strongly agree”).

The results from the preliminary research also indicated that the most valued factors in a given job were the physical environment, friendly, helpful and encouraging managers and colleagues which altogether form a comfortable working environment, giving pleasant feeling to people at work. In addition, people cared for their future career development opportunities. Recognition of outstanding performance was also seen as an important constituent of job satisfaction, followed by salary and fringe benefits offered by employer(s). Based on the information acquired, Part Two of the questionnaire consisted of both open- and close-ended multiple-choice questions (Question 20-30) in regard to their current job and their preferences towards job and job satisfaction, as well as status for recognition and awards.

The benchmark set on measuring these employees’ job performance were questions designed with number of times they have been awarded (Question 23-27). The intention of it was to find out whether the employee respondent performed well on his/her job; and whether recognition was received for it. It was assumed that the more praise the employee had received, the better his/her performance was.

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The survey took place in March 2009. Questionnaires were delivered to employees at the selected Days’ hotels in Beijing and Shanghai (see Section 3.2.1). Before distribution, detailed information was verbally provided to hotel managers with the survey intention and targeting group as well as directions on filling out the questionnaires. Time frame set and agreed for collection was one week.

At the time of the survey, the number of local employees at these three hotels was estimated to be 420. Although the exact amount (420) of questionnaires was sent out, only 335 responses were received at the end demonstrating a response rate of 79.8 percent. 332 out of 335 questionnaires were regarded as valid and used for the upcoming analysis.

3.3 Data Analysis Procedure

Data obtained from the questionnaire survey was analyzed using SPSS statistical software. Upon completion of data input, a case summary report (see Appendix 4) was generated with the purpose of checking the overall survey outcome. Frequency tables were employed to analyze the result of each question, while contingency tables and Spearman’s rho were used to perform bivariate analysis. The Likert scale questions, Question 1 to Question 19, were treated as ordinal variables in this study. When conducting correlation tests, Spearman's rho ( ), which is suitable for pairs of ordinal variables, was used to investigate the correlation of different variables (Bryman and Bell, 2007).

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In testing Hypothesis Two (H.2), Spearman's rho ( ) was calculated between “overall job satisfaction” (Question 17) and different specific dimensions of job satisfaction (Question 1-16) separately, to investigate the most important indicators in sequence for the overall job satisfaction. In addition, the result of “employee’s opinion towards three most important job factors influencing job satisfaction” (Question 28) was further analyzed in order to find out, from employees’ perspective, what were considered as the most important constructs of job satisfaction.

With regard to Hypothesis Three (H.3), to examine the linkage between employee job satisfaction and their performance, a new variable was derived from the sum of the answers from Question 23 to Question 27 and was labeled as “reward summary”. Spearman's rho ( ) was calculated between “overall job satisfaction” (Question 17) and the new variable of “reward summary” as well as with different kind of rewards (Question 23-27) individually.

Further, in the course of the second round data treatment, a correlation test was performed between “overall job satisfaction” (Question 17) and “self-deemed effort to satisfy customers” (Question 18) as well as “willingness to leave the company” (Question 19). Afterwards, Spearman’s rho ( ) was calculated between “willingness to leave the company” (Question 19) and different specific dimensions of job satisfaction (Question 1-16) to examine the correlation of job constructs and employees’ commitment to the organization.

3.4 Limitations and Ethical Considerations

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The second concern is of the tool used in the questionnaire. According to Bryman and Bell (2007), “acquiescence” effect concerning Likert scale questions should be regarded as limitation. Acquiescence refers to the tendency that respondents reply to a set of questions in a consistent way disregarding the meaning of it. As the scale set in the questionnaire was from “one” to “five”, people with neutral opinion tend to go for the “threes”.

The third concern is that of all respondents, there were employees at lower education level who could have misunderstandings on questions proposed. Although the questionnaires sent out were written completely in Chinese (see Appendix 3), there could still be misinterpretation for each question to each respondent.

Further, Bryman and Bell (2007) suggest that there could be respondents answering questions according to their perception of the desirability of certain answers. It refers to the possible existence of “lip service” employees (Peccei and Rosenthal, 2000), who might take the survey as an order and not respond truthfully. Specifically, Question 23 to 27 dealt with recognition and awards. Respondents filled in the number of times according to his/her own will. Without the means of having them verified by a third party e.g. supervisors and/or hotel guests, the result could be of limited validity, thereby affecting the reliability of the research.

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4 FINDINGS AND DATA ANALYSIS

4.1 Background of the Selected Hotels

Wyndham Hotel Group is the largest hotel group in the world. It encompasses more than 6,550 hotels worldwide under the brands of Days Inn, Wyndham, Ramada, Howard Johnson, Super 8, Wingate Inn, Travelodge, Baymont Inn, Knights Inn and AmeriHost Inn. Of these 10 brands, Days Inn is the most famous and the biggest one (Wyndham Hotel Group, n.d.). In year 2003, Days Inn entered China and started pursuing its expansion and today, Days Inn China is one of the fastest growing international hotel brands in the country. With franchise/management contracts for 52 hotels ranging from three-star to five-star and service-apartment in 37 cities across 18 provinces, Days Inn China expects to have 100 hotels by 2010 (Days Inn China, n.d.).

Due to the convenience of geographical locations, hotels selected for questionnaire distribution were Days Hotel Tongji Shanghai, Days Inn Forbidden City Beijing, and Days Inn Business Place Yinfeng Beijing.

Opened in 2007, Days Hotel Tongji is rated four-star. Situated at the heart of the renowned university district at the northeastern part of Shanghai, the hotel has 174 elegantly decorated rooms and suites, three food and beverage outlets, meeting rooms as well as other amenities. There were 222 local employees working at the time when the survey took place. (Days Inn China, 2009a)

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Days Inn Business Place Yinfeng Beijing is located near the Beijing Capital Airport. Its aim is to capture and accommodate more business travelers. Opened in 2008, the three-star hotel has 164 rooms and 76 local employees at the time the survey was conducted – due to the economic downturn. (Days Inn China, 2009c)

4.2 Findings and Analysis

4.2.1 Respondents’ characteristics

Having said in the previous chapter, the total number of respondents for this survey was 332. All of them were employees working for the above mentioned three Days’ hotels. The demographic statistics of respondents is shown in Table 1.

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Table 1: Demographic Statistics of Respondents Demographic N = 332 Percentage* Age Below 20 9 3.2% 20-29 167 60.3% 30-39 62 22.5% 40-49 27 9.7% 50-59 12 4.3% Missing 55 Gender Male 175 54.9% Female 144 45.1% Missing 13 Position Staff 181 58.6% Assist. Supervisor 40 12.9% Supervisor 59 19.1% Manager 27 8.8% Senior Manager 2 0.6% Missing 23

Department Front Office 43 14.0%

F & B 103 33.6%

Housekeeping 60 19.5%

Other 101 32.9%

Missing 25

Education level Secondary school 156 49.2%

Junior College 89 28.1%

Undergraduate 34 10.7%

Other 38 12.0%

Missing 15

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Findings have shown that of the 332 respondents, a majority were aged between 20 – 29, meaning that this age group accounted for a considerable portion of the Chinese labor market, or at least in the hospitality sector. Most of these people were working at an entry-level, with basic educational background. Additionally, 72.2 percent of the respondents have been with Days Inn for merely one year, while 24.7 percent has worked for the company for two years. This could be the reason that the hotels’ histories were short or it could be an indicator of high employee turnover rate in this industry (Silva, 2006).

4.2.2 Findings and Analysis in relation to Chinese hospitality employees’ work motives (H.1)

During the preliminary interviews in the beginning of this study, discrepancies were found between characteristics of the contemporary Chinese workers and theory depicting Chinese national culture identity. It reflected mainly on their preferences and motives towards the job. In order to test the theory and the first hypothesis (H.1) formulated in Chapter Two, which was “The characteristics of Chinese hospitality employees' work motives comply with the Chinese national culture identity. The Chinese national culture identity here refers to the ‘need for close-supervision’ and ‘the importance of wealth, recognition and achievement’”, questions proposed focused on these factors and respondents were given alternatives to choose from.

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Figure 4: Results of Question 22 “I work hard because…”

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However, when asking about their preferences of work, whether hierarchy or empowerment (Question 29, see Figure 5), the result challenged Hofstede’s research in the 1980’s. He argued that Chinese employees were very high in power distance and accordingly, they complied quickly and automatically with the decisions of the powerful. Thus, close-supervision would make employees feel secure. In this study, over 70 percent (70.1 percent) of respondents preferred their job to be free to make decisions with more responsibilities to be assumed.

Figure 5: Results of Question 29 “I would very much prefer my job to be…”

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were affected by the western way of working. They would appreciate the job to be more challenging (see Table 2).

Table 2: Crosstab of Age and Question 29

29. I would very much prefer my job to be * age level Cross-tabulation Age Below 20 20-29 30-31 40-49 50-59 Total Count 1 38 19 7 7 72 1.00 Hierarchy so that I work according to orders given %* 11.1% 23.0% 30.6% 28.0% 58.3% 26.4% Count 8 127 43 18 5 201 2.00 Free to make decisions so that I assume more responsibili-ties %* 88.9% 77.0% 69.4% 72.0% 41.7% 73.6% Count 9 165 62 25 12 273 29. I would very much prefer my job to be Total % 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% *: Valid-percentages excluding missing data.

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Figure 6: Results of Question 30 “The most probable reason to leave the hospitality sector”

From the above chart (see Figure 6), it is shown that the most probable reason for these employees to leave the industry was related to “career development” (44.5 percent). “Family factors” (16.6 percent) accounted for the second most important reason whereas 15.6 percent of respondents would rather leave if they would get “better pay” in another industry. In addition, there was 11.7 percent claimed to be persistent and believed in their current choice of career and demonstrated rather high commitment to the hospitality industry by stating that they would definitely not leave.

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“compensation/money”. While East Asians were labeled by the collectivist cultures, the centrality of family within Chinese culture has a long history (Bond and Smith, 1996 as cited in Foster, 2000). To further investigate whether gender affects career decision making, a contingency table (see Table 3) is developed as follows:

Table 3: Contingency Table for Reason to Leave and Respondents' Gender Contingency table: Q30 vs. Q32 Q32. Gender 1.00 Male 2.00 Female Total Count 32 15 47 1.00 Compensation % * 19.0% 11.3% 15.6% Count 7 3 10 2.00 Working hours % * 4.2% 2.3% 3.3% Count 5 5 10 3.00 Self-esteem/

respects from others _{% *} _3.0% _3.8% _3.3%

Count 3 7 10 4.00 Recognition from others _{% *} _1.8% _5.3% _3.3% Count 24 26 50 5.00 Family factors % * 14.3% 19.5% 16.6% Count 71 62 133 6.00 Career development _{% *} _42.3% _46.6% _44.2% Count 2 3 5 7.00 Other % * 1.2% 2.3% 1.7% Count 24 12 36

8.00 I will definitely not

leave hospitality sector _{% *} _14.3% _9.0% _12.0%

Count 168 133 301 Q30. Most probable reason to leave hospitality sector. Total % * 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%

*: Valid-percentages excluding missing data.

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development”, “compensation/money” and “family factors” were the most probable reasons for both male and female employees, male employees seemed to value compensation more than family factors; while female employees were on the contrary. This phenomenon could be understood from the perspective of the Chinese traditional allocation of family roles that men are expected to go out and earn money to support the family, while women are expected to look after home. Although this kind of idea is outdated and is fading away in modern China, it could still impact on people’s mind and choice. When a family has certain needs, women are usually the ones who change their career direction or even to choose to give up.

Moreover, some choices provided in this question, such as “working hours”, “self-esteem” and “recognition from others” were designed to see if these were intolerable factors for Chinese employees working in the hospitality sector. Different from other industries, working hours for hospitality employees are quite demanding. There are usually three shifts in hotels and employees must work when others are enjoying and celebrating festivals or holidays. Nevertheless, the results of this study (see Figure 6) showed that most of the respondents could accept these job characteristics with less than 10 percent of respondents expressed the concern over these three aspects (e.g. “working hours” 3.3 percent, “self-esteem” 3.3 percent and “recognition from others” 3.3 percent).

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been improved a lot with the development of the economy in China and the abandonment of the traditional way of thinking.

4.2.3 Findings and Analysis in relation to Chinese hospitality employees’ job satisfaction constructs (H.2)

As mentioned in Chapter Two, Job Descriptive Index (JDI) was one of the most commonly used instruments on measuring employee job satisfaction. Designed by Smith et al. in 1969, JDI evaluates job satisfaction in five facets namely pay, promotions and promotion opportunities, coworkers, supervision, and the work itself. Although other researchers raised different measurements, these five facets were always used and often as the key components. Considering this fact and in order to study the issues in relation to the research question, the second hypothesis (H.2) formulated was: “The indicators of Chinese hospitality employees' job satisfaction consist of pay, promotion opportunities, coworkers, supervision, and the work itself.”

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Table 4: Correlation between Job Satisfaction Constructs and Overall Job Satisfaction

Sig. =.000 N =332 Q17. Overall job satisfaction Q1. Salary satisfaction * Spearman's rho( )W= .494

Q2. Fringe benefits Spearman's rho( )= .472

Q3. Working climate Spearman's rho( W)= .488 Q4. Promotion opportunity * Spearman's rho( W)= .428 Q5. Career development Spearman's rho( )W= .342

Q6. Job contents * Spearman's rho( )= .628

Q7. Ability utilization Spearman's rho( )= .533 Q8. Recognition by boss Spearman's rho( W)= .516 Q9. Self-actualized feeling Spearman's rho( W)= .522 Q10. Job security feeling Spearman's rho( N)= .577 Q11. Social status satisfaction Spearman's rho( W)= .541 Q12. Respectful treatment Spearman's rho( W)= .482 Q13. Satisfaction with immediate boss * Spearman's rho( W)= .510 Q14. Satisfaction with colleague* Spearman's rho( W)= .342 Q15. Sense of achievement Spearman's rho( )N= .571 Q16. Willingness to help customers Spearman's rho( W)= .401 *: Five job satisfaction constructs of JDI.

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The correlation test indicated that satisfaction on “job content” might be the most important indicator for Chinese hospitality employees’ job satisfaction. At the same time, other indicators including “job security feelings”, “sense of achievement”, “social status satisfaction”, and “ability utilization” were also observed. As the correlation test could not be used to infer a causal relationship, the aforementioned job characteristics might influence overall job satisfaction or vice versa (Bryman and Bell, 2007).

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Table 5: Results of Question 28

28. Three most important factors influencing job satisfaction

The first * The second * The third *

1. Salary (including fringe benefits) 31.8% 20.1% 13.7%

2. Working climate 11.5% 13.6% 8.9%

3. Career development opportunities 17.6% 17.3% 14.4%

4. The work contents (work per se) 4.1% 2.0% 2.7%

5. Ability utilization 4.4% 6.8% 3.1%

6. Recognition of performance 5.4% 11.9% 12.7%

7. Self-actualization 7.1% 6.5% 6.5%

8. Stable-and-secured feeling 6.4% 8.5% 8.9%

9. Social status 0.3% 0% 2.1%

10. Respected by other people 2.4% 3.1% 7.2%

11. Immediate boss 3.0% 2.4% 3.4%

12. Colleagues 0.7% 2.4% 1.7%

13. Corporate culture 3.0% 3.1% 4.5%

14. Sense of achievement 1.4% 1.0% 6.2%

15. To benefit others by providing

services to them 1.0% 1.4% 3.4%

16. Other 0% 0% 0.7%

Total _100% 100% 100%

*: Valid-percentages excluding missing data.

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selected “salary” as the most important factor influencing job satisfaction, while its correlation to the overall job satisfaction was not significantly strong in this research. In explaining this phenomenon, Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory (1959) might be suitable.

According to Herzberg (1959), based on the fulfillment of lower-order needs of Maslow's hierarchy of needs at work (hygiene factors), individuals looking for gratification of higher-level psychological needs have to do with achievement, recognition, responsibility, advancement, and the nature of the work itself (motivator factors). Pay was categorized to the group of hygiene factors, the lack of which would arouse dissatisfaction, while employee would not feel content with the satisfaction of these factors. This explained why respondents in this study believed that money was the most important, while correlation test did not suggest a very strong relationship between “pay” and the “overall job satisfaction”.

Money could be of an important reason to work. However, plenty of researches denied that money is the complete answer to the question of “why people work”. Salary is important, because it is normally considered as a basic factor of a job. If people are dissatisfied with salary, they might quit. People need money to make a living, while job satisfaction derived from salary is limited. In addition, this study found that “job content” and “sense of achievement” which were categorized to the group of motivator factors, exhibited a stronger correlation with the overall job satisfaction (see Table 4), despite that the respondents might not be fully aware of this fact.

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market economy has been introduced and developed in China during the past 20 years and people’s minds have changed gradually, this historical notion would not instantly disappear. The second reason could be that just before the survey, one of the chosen hotels - Days Inn Business Place Yinfeng Beijing had cut down a number of employees due to the economic downturn, which might have significant impact on the attitude of the remaining employees.

4.2.4 Findings and Analysis in relation to the linkage between employees’ satisfaction and their performance (H.3)

As stated in Chapter Two, the relationship between employee satisfaction and job performance was controversial (Locke and Latham, 1990 as cited in Foster 2000; Sturman and Way, 2008; Fisher, 2003; Bowling, 2007). In order to examine the possible linkage in the Chinese hotel industry, the third hypothesis (H.3) derived from studies reviewed was: “Chinese employees’ job satisfaction is positively related to their performance”.

Question 23 to 27 of the questionnaire dealt with different kinds of rewards the employee had received (see Appendix 2). Respondents were asked to fill in the number of times they had been awarded with the specific form of rewards including “Service Star” (Question 23), “verbal compliment from customer” (Question 24), “verbal compliment from supervisor” (Question 25), “written compliment from customer” (Question 26) and “others” (Question 27). These set of questions were used as the indicator for superior job performance.

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were all relatively new; and most of the employees had been with these hotels for only a year or less. Nevertheless, the result could still have some impact on the subsequent correlation test.

The correlation test was conducted between “overall job satisfaction” (Question 17) and Question 23 to 27 separately, as well as a correlation between “overall job satisfaction” (Question 17) and “rewards summary” (the summary of Question 23 to 27). Spearman’s rho was calculated as the following in Table 6.

Table 6: Correlation between Overall Job Satisfaction and Job Performance

N =332 Q17. Overall job satisfaction

Q23. Times received “Service Star” Spearman's rho( )W= -.073 Sig.=.191

Q24. Times received verbal compliment from customer

Spearman's rho ( )=-.067 Sig.=.224

Q25. Times received verbal compliment from supervisor

Spearman's rho( W) = .014 Sig.=.794

Q26. Times received written compliment from customer

Spearman's rho( W) = -.083 Sig.=.136

Q27. Other praise Spearman's rho( W)= .069

Sig.=.211

Sum of Q23-27. Rewards summary Spearman's rho( )W= -.026 Sig.=.633

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satisfaction is organizational commitment. While the above mentioned results could only suggest that employee job satisfaction had no relationship with employee performance, to investigate further on the relation between job satisfaction and organizational commitment, a correlation test between Question 17 and Question 19 was performed (see Table 7).

Table 7: Correlation between Overall Job Satisfaction and Question 18/19

N =332 Q17. Overall job satisfaction

Q18. Self-perceived effort Spearman's rho( W)= .372 Sig. =.000

Q19. Will of leaving company Spearman's rho( )W= -.227 Sig. =.000

As presented in Table 7 above, Question 19 which dealt with employee’s “willingness to leave the company” was chosen as the indicator of employee’s commitment. A weak negative correlation was found between Question 17 and Question 19 where Spearman's rho( ) W= -.227 and it was statistically significant at the level of 0.01. Thus, it could be concluded that it would be probable that satisfied employees would be more committed - although the linkage showed in this study was not exceedingly strong.

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Furthermore, in examining the relationship between employee commitment and different job factors, correlation tests were performed between Question 19 and Q1 to Q16 separately, as presented in Table 8.

Table 8: Correlation between Will of Leaving the Company and Job Factors

N =332 Q19. Will of leaving company

Q1. Salary satisfaction Spearman's rho( )W= -.180 Sig.=.001 Q2. Fringe benefits Spearman's rho ( )= -.124 Sig.=.027 Q3. Working climate Spearman's rho( W)= -.217 Sig.=.000 Q4. Promotion opportunity Spearman's rho( W)= -.103 Sig.=.069 Q5. Career development Spearman's rho( )W= -.167 Sig.=.003 Q6. Job contents Spearman's rho( )= -.148 Sig.=.008 Q7. Ability utilization Spearman's rho( )= -.185 Sig.=.001 Q8. Recognition by boss Spearman's rho( W)= -.157 Sig.=.005 Q9. Self-actualized feeling Spearman's rho( W)= -.190 Sig.=.001 Q10. Job security feeling Spearman's rho( W)= -.241 Sig.=.000 Q11. Social status satisfaction Spearman's rho( W)= -.165 Sig.=.003 Q12. Respectful treatment Spearman's rho( W)= -.059 Sig.=.291 Q13. Satisfaction with immediate boss Spearman's rho( W)= -161. Sig.=.004 Q14. Satisfaction with colleagues Spearman's rho( W)= .007 Sig.=.902 Q15. Sense of achievement Spearman's rho( )W= -.126 Sig.=.025 Q16. Willingness to help customers Spearman's rho( W)= -.034 Sig.=.544

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5 CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS

5.1 Conclusions in Relation to the Hypotheses

With the aim of analyzing contemporary Chinese hospitality employees’ job satisfaction and examining the relationship between employee satisfaction and performance, the first hypothesis (H.1) derived from the literature reviewed was: “The characteristics of Chinese hospitality employees' work motives comply with the Chinese national culture identity. The latter refers to ‘the need for close-supervision’ and ‘the importance of wealth, recognition and achievement’.” Questions proposed in the survey emphasized on aspects that discrepancies were found between theory and the reality during the preliminary study (e.g. “the need for close-supervision” and “the importance of wealth, recognition and achievement”).

Based on the questionnaire survey, findings have shown that culture has changed over time. From employees’ perspective, the need for close-supervision was not really appreciated, while the importance of wealth, recognition and achievement remained unchanged. Therefore, the first hypothesis (H.1) set was rejected. Nevertheless, Objective One set out for the research (see Chapter 1) which was “to capture the culture trend over time in Chinese hotel service sector”, was met.

Further, by adopting the proven JDI measurement (see Chapter 2) on employee satisfaction and taking into account the findings from the preliminary study, the research continued on investigating the constructs of Chinese employees’ job satisfaction. The second hypothesis (H.2) formulated was: “The indicators of Chinese hospitality employees' job satisfaction consist of pay, promotion opportunities, coworkers, supervision, and the work itself.”

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medium to strong correlations between factors e.g. “job security feelings”, “sense of achievement”, “social status satisfaction”, and “ability utilization” and the overall job satisfaction suggested that the indicators of Chinese hospitality employees' job satisfaction should also include these characteristics. Besides “the work itself” which reflected on the term “job content”, the other four indicators used e.g. “pay”, “promotion opportunities”, “coworkers”, and “supervision” failed to show very strong correlations with overall job satisfaction. Thereby, the research outcome has rejected the second hypothesis (H.2). By conducting of the survey and the analysis made to the findings fulfilled Objective Two set out in Chapter One, which was “to identify the significant constructs of Chinese hospitality employees' job satisfaction”.

Moreover, the ongoing debate on the linkage between employee job satisfaction and performance had enforced the formulation of the third hypothesis (H.3) which was: “Chinese hospitality employees’ job satisfaction is positively related to their performance.” Data analysis was carried out in the manner of testing the relationship between these variables, while at the end, findings in this research showed that employee job satisfaction had no relationship with their performance. Thus, the outcome rejected the third hypothesis (H.3) set out for the study. However, Objective Three, “to examine the linkage between job satisfaction and employee performance” was fulfilled.

5.2 Conclusions of the Research Question

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“self-actualization” and “gaining respect and recognition” were regarded important by today’s work group in China). At the same time, there might also be some old notion still rooted in people’s mind (e.g. the importance of “job security feelings”, “sense of achievement” as depicted in the theory). All of these could have consequently affected contemporary Chinese workers on their job satisfaction. In addition, there was no relationship found between Chinese hospitality employees’ job satisfaction and service performance in this research.

Further, as suggested by Locke and Latham (1990, as cited in Foster, 2000) that job satisfaction is associated with organizational commitment, a second round data analysis was carried out in testing this relationship. The results illustrated a weak trend of negative correlation between “job satisfaction” and employees’ “willingness to leave the company”. Although it could not fully support the idea advocated by Locke and Latham (1990), it could still be used to state that some kind of indistinct relationship existed between these variables, which deserves further studies.

By conducting the empirical research on Chinese hotel employees, the aim of this study, “to analyze contemporary Chinese hospitality employees’ job satisfaction and to examine the linkage between employee satisfaction and performance”, was achieved. This was done by analyzing findings generated from hypothesis testing and further by the results of it to answer the research question.

5.3 Implications for Hospitality Managers

Graduate School

Employee Satisfaction vs. Service Performance

-A Chinese hotel’s perspective

Susanna Sun and Yun Shi

Graduate School

Master of Science in Tourism and Hospitality Management

Master Degree Project No. 2009:64

ABSTRACT

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

1 INTRODUCTION

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

3 METHODOLOGY

4

FINDINGS AND DATA ANALYSIS

5 CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS